The insurance company warns: Christmas ham can be life-threatening for a dog

Insurance company Lähitapiola and the Finnish Kennel Club warn dog owners about the dangers of Christmas. According to the insurance company, poisonings are among the more common causes of accidental deaths in dogs. The risk of poisoning is real at Christmas, because many of the treats for people are dangerous for dogs.

Local tapiola compensation specialist Anu Kostamo says in the company’s announcement that a large part of the worst ailments of dogs during the Christmas season is a treat that is not suitable for the dog’s digestion.

“For example, the fat and salt in Christmas ham can even be life-threatening for a dog. Ham fat can cause intestinal symptoms, such as vomiting or diarrhea and, at worst, pancreatitis. The salt in ham, on the other hand, can be harmful, especially for dogs and cats with kidney or heart disease,” says Kostamo.

According to the Kennel Club, ham or poultry bones should not be given to dogs either. Bones can block a dog’s intestine or sharp bone chips can even puncture the intestine, the Kennel Association warns.

For bio waste in dog households, the grease from the cooked ham should be immediately taken outside to the waste container, so that the pet cannot reach it.

“In this case, even the most enthusiastic pet can’t dig it out of the trash when the owner’s eye is avoiding it. In general, you should try to keep your dog’s diet as familiar as possible even at Christmas. If the dog gets ‘just a little’ taste from the whole family, a little suddenly turns into a lot and the evening ends with a visit to the veterinarian’s office,” says Lähitapiola’s Kostamo in the news release.

In addition to ham, you should also keep for example nuts, grapes, raisins, chocolates and candies out of reach of the dog.

Even less than two grams of dark baking chocolate per kilogram of body weight can cause symptoms of poisoning in a dog. Xylitol is also a common cause of poisoning in dogs. In addition to chewing gums, it is also found in, for example, many lozenges and vitamin tablets.

Different decorations and gift strings should also be kept out of the reach of dogs. In the intestine, decorative objects and long pieces of string can cause serious damage and even the pet’s death if the situation is not noticed in time.

Finland According to the Kennel Union, many traditional Christmas flowers are also toxic to dogs. Such flowers are, for example, poinsettia, hyacinth, amaryllis, Christmas rose, azalea, tulip and yew.

According to the Kennel Association, there were more than 800,000 dogs in Finland in the spring of 2023. At that time, 582,000 of the dogs had been registered in the Finnish Kennel Club’s dog register or identification tag database.

Near tapiolan According to a survey conducted by Verian, 11 percent of dog owners say that their pet has had access to dangerous food or medicine at home.

Such situations are clearly more common among the youngest pet owners. Of the respondents under 25 years of age, one in five said that their pet had access to food or medicine that was dangerous for it.

A total of 1,047 people responded to Lähtiapiola’s survey between October 24 and November 1, 2024. The questions about pets were answered by the 416 people who said they owned a pet. 233 said he owns a dog. The statistical margin of error of the results is approximately 3.1 percentage points in each direction at the level of the entire material.